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Corbera d’Ebre

Bodega Celler Frisach is in Corbera d’Ebra, a small town in the region of Terra Alta about two hours southwest of Barcelona. Corbera is your typical 1,000 person community. Everyone knows each other, everyone says hi to one another and at some point throughout the day everyone occupies a seat at one the two cafes on the town’s main drag. There are even a couple cool bars in Corbera, one of which I’m particularly fond in that it reminds me of a dive bar in Missoula Montana, Al’s and Vicks, for which I hold a number of heart-twisting feelings.

Directly above the main drag of Corbera, above the small groups of abuelos who sit outside for hours on summer evenings, above the tight knit community and the Montana-like dive bars lies the Poble Vell, or, the Old Town. The Old Town, an official historical site, is a chunk of history that represents the 1938 Battle of Ebro- probably the deadliest battle of the Spanish Civil war. Almost everything in the Old Town was destroyed in the 115 day battle, save the old church that been restored as a rotating art gallery and the ruins of old stone houses and cellars. There’s an unequivocal weight of sadness in the Old Town. You feel the sensation of terror in the dry wind that blows through the pine trees, you almost experience the grief in the silence that sits at the top of the hill. But walk down the road a bit to the “new town” and you find business as usual. You find both young and old generations occupying life, you find bars and restaurants filled with local community and you find Celler Frisach- a tiny Bodega making some of the best wines coming out of Spain.

I’ve been doting on this lineup for a while now. Winemaker, Francesc Ferré takes Garnatxa Blanca and makes you wonder where the hell it’s been all your life. The L’Abrunet red, white and rosado (which just got some major press ) are the bright, energetic, quaffable workhorses. The Vernatxa is the old vine Garnatxa Blanca with texture, salt and complexity that gives white Burgundy a run for its money. The Foradora is a shout out to the ancestors, to an old school style of winemaking with the proper amount of skin contact that takes you all the way from entremesos to the main dish. And the Sang de Corb is the serious, yet restrained red blend with elegance, muscle, a moniker and a label that depict the bloodiest battle in the Spanish Civil war. I tasted all of these wines, from tank to bottle to barrel in my 5 day stay in Terra Alta last week, and they are fire.

There is a new project at Cellar Frisach, however, that’s going to need the bulk of your attention. In an effort to save old vineyards parcels from certain destruction, Francesc is sourcing fruit from old school farmers in the region. He’s vinifying and bottling monovarietal wines from old vine Garnatxa Peluda, Morenillo, Grenache Gris and Cariñena and adding zero sulfur- purely as an experiment. The experiment is working. The wines are fresh, clean, thorough and energetic. Were I forced to pick a favorite, the Garnatxa Peluda comes in first. It is bright and full of acid and fruit, perfect with the tomatoes and lamb chops we fixed for our backyard BBQ. These wines taste like the Old Town, the New Town, the local swimming hole and the Montana dive bar. I hope the wines make it stateside in time to taste like a Bay Area summer. But, while you patiently wait, grab yourself a bottle of the L’Abrunet, throw a blanket down at Lake Merritt and in the words of Francesc himself: “drink, drink, drink.” Miss ya’ll something fierce.